Mixed Emotions
by Marcipie
Summary: When Joy and Anger managed to create a core memory, it had been entirely by accident.


**Mixed Emotions  
an **_**Inside Out**_ **fanfiction  
by Marcipie**

 **Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, own** _**Inside Out**_ **.**

 **Please enjoy!**

 **xx**

When Joy and Anger managed to create a core memory, it had been entirely by accident.

Of course, when Joy and Sadness created one, it hadn't exactly been on purpose. Or at least she didn't have a clue what Sadness was up to at the time, so she couldn't exactly say for certain she _knew_ what was going to happen. She wasn't the one who read the mind manuals, after all.

But she could say with complete honesty that she hadn't ever imagined, in any realm of existence or other, that her and Anger would be able to create a core memory together.

Joy was a complete and total opposite of Anger. There were times they never really interacted with one another simply because Joy was too _happy_ for the hot-headed emotion and Anger was just too serious and temperamental for her tastes. As it were Riley always acted in separate spectrums of emotion when either one of them were in control. He was sharp cynicism and hot-blooded fury with a little bit of softness mixed in – he did care, after all, despite his aggression – while she was all bubbly optimism and kooky silliness wrapped up in an extra layer of love. The fact the two of them could even create such an important aspect of Riley's personality was absolutely astounding to her.

Riley had been playing hockey when it happened.

One of the girls on the other team, maybe Emily was her name, intentionally knocked her down and mocked her. Naturally Anger, practically shivering in rage, forced his way to the front of the panel and took control after that for the majority of the game. The rest of the emotions were content to watch from the side but Joy's eyes never strayed from the screen, as enraptured as she was by watching the game, for the reason of wanting to know when to intervene in case the short fuse of the group took a step too far. The next few matches were a bit stressful for Joy – tensing and clenching her teeth, her hands twitching at her sides the longer she stood idle.

Despite acknowledging that the others were just as important for Riley's growth as she was, Joy was still a little anxious when the other emotions drove.

It was about the end of the final round of the game when Joy saw an opportunity to turn their girl's mood around. Joy held her breath as Riley had managed to not only secure the puck but also caused Emily to abruptly lose her balance and hit the ice with a sharp thud. Emily's cheeks flushed a bright red as an enraged shriek left her mouth. Snapping the flat end of her hockey stick against the ice, she shot daggers toward Riley's direction as she heaved herself to her feet.

Regardless of the pettiness of the situation, the thrill of one-upping a bully was enough of a reason for Joy, in her opinion.

Taking her chance, the brightly-colored emotion lunged forward, her hands catching the middle of the console blindly. The entire panel hummed beneath her touch and she grinned up at the screen when Riley's triumphant laugh was heard throughout headquarters. A few of Riley's teammates chuckled in response and slid by to give Riley a series of high-fives and fist bumps.

 _Music to my ears_.

Joy was always thrilled when she was in control. Hearing Riley laugh and seeing her be so silly, all because of _Joy_ , made affection swell in her chest and she always felt ready to burst with the feeling. It was why she constantly tried to be Riley's main emotion. The feeling of pride and love was so strong and made her feel so needed and complete that she had never imagined why Riley needed the other emotions. The others – Fear, Sadness, Anger, and Disgust. All they seemed to do was put trouble in their girl's life and make her unable to fully enjoy her life to the fullest. But now…

Joy understood now more than ever that the others were just as important, if not more so.

It was then she noticed the almost suffocating silence surrounding her. Blinking, she turned to look behind her and caught the surprised and almost horrified looks that Fear, Sadness, and Disgust were sending her. Three pairs of eyes darted from hers to just below her and she stiffened when she remembered just _who_ she'd plowed over to get to the console.

Joy had been so distracted by Riley that she had failed to see she had thrown herself flush against Anger's back while he stood before the control panel, the upper part of her body stretched over the top of his head as her fingers gripped the handles on the console. She was amused at first – considering how short he was, it was easy to overlook the small fellow – but that's when the embarrassment settled in. Not only had she completely disregarded his presence at the console, but she had also ignored his role there as well.

The glowing emotion swallowed and bit her lip. One of the worst possible things she could have done and she happened to do just that. She then slowly tilted her head down and noticed he had already directed his irate glare up at her. His brow twitched when their eyes met and she winced slightly when his lip curled and a growl escaped him.

"Um…" The brightly glowing emotion uttered and a breathy laugh escaped her. "Oops."

Anger grit his teeth. He struggled to reign in his temper, considering he did have _some_ manners despite what others may think, but she was really starting to test his patience when she continued to lay stretched across his head like a confused puppy. She could only stare at him in some strange mixture of horror and awe, as if she couldn't believe where she was, and he could almost feel the veins in his head threatening to pop.

Screw his manners.

"I had this under control, Joy! You ever heard of _personal space_ , huh?!" He spat through his teeth and the growl to his words made the three emotions behind them flinch. His voice was loud and gruff and so deep in his throat, Joy could almost say she felt the tremors of it through her own body by sheer contact alone. Taking in a small breath, Joy's eyes flickered to the screen briefly before settling back on him with a strained grin.

"Well, um… What can I say? I'm just full of surprises." She chuckled through her nerves. Anger merely twitched at her expression, another low growl escaping through his clenched jaw. Joy cleared her throat and carefully flexed her hands on the console before she realized she'd encased his bright red hands under her glowing yellow palms. Her grin turned a bit sheepish when he appeared to notice it at the same time she did, his eyes wandering to their conjoined hands with a frown. She quickly jerked her hands back.

And then as if to break the silence, a sudden chime echoed through headquarters. All five emotions turned in disbelief to see a new orb roll into existence. It was shimmering as brightly as only a core memory could.

Except this time, it was a radiant gold and red sphere. Joy's breath caught in her throat and Anger's mouth fell open in his surprise while a series of gasps erupted from the three emotions behind them.

"Is that…?" Joy heard herself say before the orb began sliding along the track. She felt frozen in place, her eyes wide and disbelieving, as she kept her gaze trained on the very memory she had helped create. Anger seemed just as stunned, not even bothering to notice he was still being used as literal furniture, his tense form twisting beneath her to follow the course of the memory sphere's trajectory – the middle column. The red and yellow orb slid easily into place, rotating beneath the floor, before it began humming and glowing brightly. Riley's personality island flashed briefly with the new addition and a few sections thrummed with energy but otherwise everything remained the same.

There was a shocked silence from all of the emotions. Joy found she was eager to share a look with Anger, head tilting down to catch his gaze, and was slightly surprised to find his eyes looking up, locking onto hers in unison. The two emotions stared at one another for several seconds, not daring to move – or in Joy's case, not even risking the chance to breathe. She held her breath, trying to read that hidden look in Anger's eyes, and it was in that moment she realized just how much her and the hot-headed emotion had in common.

They were both passionate about everything, driven by their intense emotions. Everything they did they put their entire heart and soul into it, although they each went about it in their own unique ways. It was true that she and Sadness were on different ends of the spectrum, but it was only now she realized her and Anger were on separate sides of the _same coin_.

Hesitantly, Joy's fingers slowly reached out and closed over his own, gently squeezing his hands that were still curled onto the handles on the console while a small smile lit up her face. Instead of scowling at the touch like she thought he might, his mouth curled into a wide grin, delight clear in his eyes.

Joy was suddenly finding it a bit hard to breathe.

"What just _happened_?" Disgust asked and just the sound of her voice seemed to have broken whatever spell had fallen on all of them. Anger sharply stiffened beneath her and, after their gazes simultaneously snapped to their entwined fingers, they quickly leapt apart from the other as though they were on fire. Joy felt more than saw the stares of the other emotions on the two of them and then she was abruptly scrambling away from him until her back hit the front of the console behind her. Anger turned and peered at her briefly with narrowed eyes before he huffed and stomped off towards the couch on the other side of the panel.

After watching him go, Joy let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and straightened. Setting her eyes on the new core memory, she couldn't stop the grin from growing on her face before she whirled in place to watch Riley's progress in her almost-forgotten hockey game.

"This is so exciting! A new core memory! Our Riley is one amazing girl." Joy breathed.

"She sure is." Fear agreed and cautiously approached the middle panel, his eyes scanning the new orb. "This is unbelievable, Joy! Out of all of us, you and _Anger_ have –"

"Are we sure it wasn't a fluke?" Disgust cut in with a raised eyebrow. She peered at the shimmering sphere skeptically. Joy turned from the screen and a frown crossed her face as she watched Fear, Disgust, and Sadness crowd around the new core memory, eyeing it with varying degrees of disbelief, suspicion, and awe.

"How could it be a fluke? Joy and I created this one," Sadness murmured softly and gestured to the glowing yellow and blue orb nestled beside the new memory. Disgust rolled her eyes.

"Well, _duh_ , but how in the world could it have happened twice? Maybe it was a mistake." She idly picked at her nails and held them up for inspection. "For all we know, we aren't supposed to be making mixed core memories."

Joy paused and a crease formed in her brow. She slowly turned back to the screen and pressed her lips together tightly, hoping beyond words that they hadn't somehow messed everything up for their girl. What if they had? What if creating these mixed core memories were making things worse? What if Riley was feeling overwhelmed because of them? Had Joy made the wrong choice? She hated to second guess herself, but what if Disgust was right? She hated to think that the one good thing her and Anger did together was some kind of abomination – something that shouldn't exist.

"You guys are all idiots."

Joy felt her voice catch in her throat at the voice and the four of them spun to face the couch where Anger had dropped the newspaper enough that he could look over the top of it, his narrowed eyes piercing through them with such an intensity that it made Disgust flinch. Folding the newspaper, Anger's palm slapped it unceremoniously against the cushion before he hopped from the couch.

"If it weren't a good thing, we wouldn't have be able to do it, now would we?" The hot-tempered emotion snapped. Sadness raised a hand nervously.

"But that's not necessarily true. Joy and I weren't supposed to be able to go to long-term memory but we did. The tubes were for memories only but for some reason they were large enough for Joy and I to –"

"Alright, who asked you?" Anger's sharp tone cut her off and Sadness quickly clamped her mouth shut with her eyes wide. "Look… All I'm saying is if nothing is falling apart, or losing power, or _something,_ " here, Anger gestured wildly to their control panel and threw a hand out to turn their attention to the window as though referencing the previous disaster, "then everything is okay. _Got it_?" He stared at each of them in turn before his eyes landed on Joy. His fiery eyes narrowed and she suddenly found herself nodding to him. While the rest of the emotions scattered, muttering amongst themselves, Anger found himself standing before the console before he lifted his head to the screen. Joy stood back for a few moments pondering before she found herself joining him.

"How's our girl doing?" She asked softly.

Anger flashed her a glance before his gaze was drawn back to the monitor before them. "She's good. Mom and Dad are taking us out for ice cream after the game, it seems." Joy felt a smile forming on her face as she automatically reached out with one finger and tapped a button on the console. It lit up with a soft chime as a golden memory orb rolled along the track behind them. They were silent for several moments before she leaned forward, resting her palms against the control panel.

"Thanks for not blowing up on me, Anger." Joy murmured to the emotion beside her and she grinned when he scoffed.

"I don't _always_ lose my temper." He grumbled. When Joy sent him a smug smile, he rolled his eyes. "Fine, so maybe I do." Anger admitted before a sly look sparked in his eyes. He turned to her and wagged his eyebrows slightly. "But I'm just saying maybe next time pay more attention instead of throwing yourself on me."

Joy felt a blossoming heat gather in her cheeks as she eyed the expression on his face before she felt her own mouth stretch into an answering grin. Casually, she leant down enough that she could feel a bit of his breath fan across her face. "And, just throwing this out there… But maybe if you weren't so short, I would've seen you standing there."

His mouth dropped open and the top of his head began to glow a bright orange. " _What?_ " Anger barked and then Joy was laughing as she danced out of his reach when he lunged for her.

Joy wasn't about to dwell on it. Because if Joy and Sadness, two of the most opposite of emotions, could create a core memory then who's to say it wasn't all that strange that her and Anger could? And if she kept going back to that moment when she was flush up against him, hands clasping at his own, as she gazed into his eyes that were full of awe and a smile that caused a sudden skip of her heart?

Well, she would keep that little detail to herself.

 **xx**

 **aaaaahhh I had to. I just had to.**

 **While I watched Inside Out at the part near the end where we get a glimpse of the several mixed core memories, my eyes were always drawn to the shimmering yellow and red one. I immediately begin drawing up this story because if there are two emotions I love the most, it's Joy and Anger.**

 **Anger will always be my favorite, hands down, and no one can tell me otherwise.**


End file.
